As for what Dantonio will say to the juniors, he shared a bit of that in a Nov. 20 press conference when asked about the possibility of juniors leaving Michigan State, which finished 7-6 after its 17-16 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl victory over TCU (7-6) on Saturday night in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

"If they're going to stay, they've got to have good reasons to stay, otherwise they're not happy,'' Dantonio said. If they're going to leave, they've got to have good reasons to leave, otherwise they're not happy.

"I think college is the greatest time in your life. It certainly is a learning process for you. It's an opportunity a little bit to be a little bit contained and protected.''

Dantonio said he keeps track of NFL Draft statistics to share with his juniors, as he's aware the agents looking to turn a profit aren't always so objective.

"People that say that they're going out (early), 47 percent since 2007 of those people never get drafted; so 47 percent of the people that say, 'I'm going to go', they never get drafted,'' Dantonio said. "You have to be projected probably within the first three rounds to be almost, I think pretty certain, that you're going to go.''

Bell has been projected anywhere from the second- to fourth-round, Sims third-fourth round, and Gholston third-fourth round.

Dantonio has kept up with the accuracy of the projections, too.

"I have all the statistics on all those things: there's 39 players since 2007 that have been projected early‑round, first‑round players — 31 have gone in the first round,'' Dantonio said. "And when you get into the third round, it's a lot different.

"People are in everybody's ear.''

Dantonio said he remembers an example of a player who could have easily turned pro, but opted to return and help his team to a national championship.

"My greatest example of all this is when I was a defensive coordinator at Ohio State, we were 7‑5, we lost a lot of close games,'' Dantonio said. "Mike Doss walked in and said, 'I'm coming back because I want to win a national championship.' He was very certain about that. I just listened to him. He was a realist. But he had an opportunity to go out in the first or second round. He stayed and won a national championship. It wasn't easy. We won a lot of close games.

"I mean, there's got to be value one way or the other and you have to weigh that value.''